I’m a visual artist from Bogotá, Colombia, and currently a member of the design team at Bajo, a renowned wooden toy manufacturer located in Poland. Before joining the team in 2020, I received my Master’s in Visual Arts from the Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design in Prague.
My principal interest revolves around the creation of objects and toys, often mechanical. Through these mediums, I explore the relationship between art, design, and fun.
Lately, I have become more aware of the importance of humor and a sense of wonder in the design process. I firmly believe these characteristics can make objects more relatable, thus making the human experience more emotional and warm, something we all crave, particularly in these times of absorbing technology and increasing alienation.
The works in this portfolio are a collection of experiments, not only because of the different mediums and materials I played with but also because of the different ways in which the pieces are trying to define the nature of what a toy can be.
TOYS
“Life
out of the inanimate”
MERMAID/ polystyrene, whistle. 2019
This mermaid toy is a bath tub companion; it can float next to you, but if you submerge it in water, she will sing for you. I developed this toy inspired by similar singing ceramics from pre-Columbian times. Essentially, the water that enters the bottom of the mermaid pushes air upwards and through a whistle. This toy is also my first attempt at using plastic.
Armadillos can be found across the entire American continent. For me, this piece is a way to reconnect with my land.
This simple, articulated toy mimics what the real animal does; when it feels a little shy, it curls into a ball, or it can be completely stretched and proud — you just have to pull its tail.
MECHANICAL BUGS/
The Mechanical Bugs collection of toys, draws inspiration from the art of puppeteering, particularly how the illusion of life is created from simple cloth and wires. This time I’ve chosen to represent animals regarded as not so friendly with the intention of creating something charming out of their bad reputation.
To bring the Caterpillar or the Tarantula to life one has to take the wire handles and gently move forward one after the other. The best results in terms of movement, are achieved when the operation is carried out with rhythm and attention to the performance.
CATERPILLAR/
wire and felt.
2015 - 2017
Impressionable people sometimes react with fear when they see these toys in action…
Between 2015 and 2018 I was part of Dduoo, a brand which had the goal of creating charming objects made in small batches and with a high level of craftsmanship. We designed and manufactured everything, from patterns to handmade mechanical toys.
THE DDUOO TEAM/ 2015
No microchips no batteries!
The toys we make are aim to all ages and they are a modern take on the wooden toys of the past. The whole idea was to create objects that could be manufactured using very simple technics such as laser cutting, silkscreen printing and wire bending. Each one of the five toys represents a different animal and has a particular movement.
These series of toys won one of the categories of the ‘Lápiz de Acero’ Award in 2017 . The most prestigious design award in Colombia.
Painted wood, wire and cloth.
MOUSE/
Painted Wood, felt, weights and string.
PENGUIN/
Painted wood and weights.
BIRD/
Painted wood and wires.
MY TIME IN PRAGUE/
2018 - 2020
The two years I spent at the Academy of Arts Architecture and Design of Prague, have given me the oportunity to explore a new side of my practice.
In 2019, I joined the Concept - Object - Meaning Studio run by professor Eva Eisler. Here, I have been able not only to produce toys but also pieces of jewelry and wearable objects that I have aproached with the same joyfulness and fun as my other work.
The metal technics of the jewllers are also one of the most intersting new aditions to my tool set. Working with this new material has been fundamental to my recent work.
These series of objects are in between toys and jewlry, a concept that I explore under the umbrella term “Joy-Llery” a mix of the wearable and the playfull. They are articulated animals that you can use as rings and interact with them making them hop, gallop or just walk, in a way they are the next step of finger puppets
FLAPPING HEART/
and wire.
The first object of a duo; the Flapping Heart is a series of two pins inspired by the idea of flirting. Once more, I’m trying to blur the lines between a wearable object and a toy. You only need to lightly press the sides of the heart to make it move. It is supposed to work as a signal of attraction.
aluminium, string and wood.
The winking eye is the second piece of the series. An invitation for flirtatious play in the form of a wearable toy.
SHAMANS AND MONSTERS/
As part of my master’s diploma project, I have been developing a series of toys inspired by the mythology of the American continent: both of pre-columbian origin and the one created by the first europeans. The result is a sincretic group of objects that blur the lines between both worlds and tell the story of magic and realism that lays under the faundation of Latin American Identity. A topic that has been central for me in the past years.
Cover of the voyages of sir Walter Raleigh (fragment). Levinus Hulsius, 1601.
The Frog is one of the most sacred creatures for the people of the Americas and it is the inspiration for this toy. However, here it is combined with a Blemmy, one of the monstruos creatures the spanish conquistadors wrote about in their first reports of the exploration of the new continent during the XV century: a human with no head and with all his features in chest.
The jaguar was the animal in which the warriors of the Indian groups used to transform into before going to battle. In this push along toy, I represented it as a creature full of vitality and strength. There is a secondary interpretation for this creature: a Maticore, a terrible monster with a cuadrouped body and the head of a man said to inhabit the south of the Americas.
The idea of metamorphosis was particularly important for the Pre-Columbian shamans. To blend with the animal was to see the world from a different perspective. In this case from high above the clouds as a bird or from the aquatic world of fish.
In the many chronicles of the Indies that the conquistadores wrote to described the Americas in the XV century, there is a common character: a human with particularly long earlobes. I used this character as an inspiration for one of my toys. Normally it is said to be sleeping covered with his ears as if they where blankets but instead here he is being a little more ambitious, using them in his attempt to fly.
Homo Fanesius Auritus. Jean-Baptiste Coriolan, 1642.
BAJO TOY FACTORY/ 2020
In 2020 I joined the design team at Bajo Wooden Toys, since then I have been designing toys for the international market. Aside from the pursuit of aesthetic and design quality I have made my personal goal to bring new sources of inspiration and to focus on diverse cultural references.
GALAPAGOS TOYS/
This set of four pull toys developed for Bajo is trying to find new horizons and sources of inspiration, this time I decided to look at the Galapagos Archipelago, a magical place famous not only for its diversity but also for the role it played in the development of the theory of evolution after Charles Darwin, partly inspired by the local fauna, formulated his ideas about the origin of species.
The series depicts some of the most iconic inhabitants of these islands, and it represents their different methods of locomotion by the use of non convention triangular wheels, which give all the creatures a funny reciprocating movement while children play with them.
IGUANA/ painted wood. 2021
TORTOISE/
painted wood. 2021
Tortoises are probably the most famous inhabitants of the Galapagos, this collection wouldn’t be complete without it. Apart from being a pull toy this tortoise also works as a simple sorter. The blocks on its back come with a printed pattern that despite its simplicity allows children to create a multiplicity of designs.
MISBAHA/
I was asked to develop a toy for the Arabic market, the intention was to create an object that would help children familiarize with the eastern arabic numerals. I approached the project with two goals in mind; First as an object capable of revealing the values that the graphical numbers are expressing, and the second consideration was to have a cultural specific reference.
To achieve the first goal I thought about the possibility of a future archaeologist unearthing this device and I asked myself how to communicate to this person? My conclusion was to use color coded wooden balls to describe the value of all the digits from 0 to 9. The cultural reference came from the Misbahas (praying beads), and altough this device exists in many cultures they are particularly present in the world of islam.
CRYPTOGRAPHIC SET /
painte and printed wood.
2023
The Cryptographic Set is a simple code system that lets children send and decode secret messages. It works by using sticks with different colors and letters in combination with the base.
To send a message, the sender arranges a sequence of three colors and writes the message, replacing the letters in the base by those in the sticks.
decode the message, the receiver uses the same color sequence to find the correct side of the stick. They then replace the coded letters with the original black letters shown on the stick to reveal the message. And voilà! The message has been decoded.
BRICKS ON WHEELS/
set of eight wooden blocks.
2021
Blocks are usually associated with architecture and construction, with stability, but with this new set I decided to take them on the road. I wanted to give children the possibility of putting them together to create different vehicles, thus exploring the blocks as a dynamic element rather than a static one.
Children can put the blocks together in different combinations and orientations and then, the matching holes will allow them to pass a string joining them together. The end result are interesting composition of shapes, color and solid and soft elements
Memento is, in essence, a Toy-Clock, however rather than focusing on teaching children about numbers and how to read time, it is a piece that will help them explore the inevitability of the passing time, it is a sort of “Carpe Diem ‘’ for infants.
Memento has a mechanism hidden inside. It allows the dial to turn“clockwise” while you pull it, this action is accompanied by a pleasant Tick-Tack sound, as that happens you can find windows in the back that show you the days passing by and a gear turning constantly. However, what happens when you decide to go backward? nothing… absolutely nothing, you can try to go back all you want but time moves only in one direction, so you better make the most out of it.
PRISMA ROVER/
painted wood.
2023
The mechanism allowing this car is simple, a series of multicolor prisms are connected to the wheels, and as the car is pulled or pushed the prisms turn, alternating between the colors of their faces and creating a screen-like effect. The prisms can act in synchrony so that the colors change uniformly or they can go for a funkier, more chaotic combination of colors. It is an homage to the aesthetics of modernism that had been fundamental to the development of my toy production.
FLAUNDER/
wood. 2021
This rattle is designed to capture the eccentric goofiness of flounder fish, turning it into a charming character.
Children will be delighted by the soothing sound it produces when they shake it. But the fun really kicks in when it rolls across the floor. As it moves, the eyes of the fish wiggle, giving it a wonderfully crossed-eye look that completes the magic.
This toy isn’t just about the sound; it’s about engaging kids with its quirky movement and playful personality. It’s a rattle that’s both entertaining and interactive, adding a touch of fun to playtime with its unique, flounder-inspired charm.
PROTO TYPES
PUSH ALONG/
My process for creating objects is a very analog one. I play around with cardboard wood and wires to create the working mechanisms that eventually become toys. Here a fish and and a dog are the source of inspiration for a pair of hand held push toys.
This on going project (currently at the stage of prototype) is basically a toy car that goes forward when push vigorously. It works with a simple mechanism composed only of a hinge and a spring. The energy of the push, bends the car and as the spring compresses, it stores potential energy. Then when the hand is removed, the energy is released and the car goes in the opposite direction of the force. In other words, it is all about action and reaction, one of Newton’s laws of physics, hence the code name of the project NEWTON.
